What's the difference between Strength and Might?

[Harvey]

Ok so I'm playing binding blade and no matter how high a unit's strength is, it always give the damage based on the might.

So I'm not clear what's the difference between the strength stat and the weapon might.

Can any one of you experts explain?

[Augestein]

"Might" is the weapon attack value. Strength is the raw power of the unit. IE, attack power is based off of str + might. You can't make your strength higher without leveling up or stat boosters. Might can be made different based on the weapon you attack with.

[eclipse]

And to add, magical classes use Magic instead of Strength. Total attack power is Strength/Magic + weapon might + other stuff that isn't relevant to the question you're asking.

[Harvey]

Ok so say the strength of a sword master is 13 and the might of the weapon is 8. So does that mean he can kill a unit with a hp of 24?

Or how about this...say Gunter has str 10 and he starts with iron lance which has 7. Does that mean he gives 17 damage every time he faces units?

Edited November 7, 2016 by Harvey

[Lady Sansa]

It's basic math. This series is not complicated. This site has a ton of resources for you to use, like this: http://serenesforest.net/binding-blade/miscellaneous/calculations/

[eclipse]

The damage calculations are a wee bit more complex than that. Defense/Resistance come into play, and negate some amount of damage. So, let's take some example. . .

Roy and his amazing 5 Str attack a Myrmidon with 2 Defense. He wields a weapon with 8 MT. So the basic calculation is:

5 (Roy's Str) + 8 (weapon MT) - 2 (enemy's Def) = 11 damage total.

For magical units, replace Resistance with Defense.

[Harvey]

Ok. so if the myrmidon's defense is very low, does that mean that roy's damage becomes 13 or it give more than that?

I get what each stat does but I don't get why for someone like Dieck who has great strength doesn't do so much damage for bosses when giving him a steel blade.

[eclipse]

First off, this post is spot-on - there's a LOT of things that go into damage calculations, and I just took the simplest example. Other things that'll affect damage include supports, terrain, and the weapon triangle. If you haven't played FE7 yet, I STRONGLY suggest that you do. The tutorial does a great job explaining what goes into damage calculations.

Also, Knights on thrones are stupidly hard to kill. Try the Armorslayer instead.

[Quintessence]

I'll try to be the most friendly and less technical I can.

Among the spread of stats, in GBA, STR is a value that adds up to the amount of damage (either physical or magical) a unit can deal to an enemy. Damage also considers other factors such as weapon might, weapon effectiveness (multiplier coefficient), weapon triangle bonus, support bonus, enemy defense (+terrain/support bonusses if applicable).

In the end it's something like:

Dmg = Unit Str + (Weapon Might + Triangle Bonus) * Weapon Effectiveness + Support Bonus - (Enemy Defense - Support Bonus - Terrain Bonus)

Now to answer your questions...

Ok so say the strength of a sword master is 13 and the might of the weapon is 8. So does that mean he can kill a unit with a hp of 24?

Or how about this...say Gunter has str 10 and he starts with iron lance which has 7. Does that mean he gives 17 damage every time he faces units?

If the Swordmaster has 13 STR and a weapon of 8 mt (might) it means it can deal up to 21 dmg without considering support bonuses and enemy def. But this is not enough to say if it can kill a 24HP enemy, because said enemy can have 21 def or around 20 def with terrain, wpn triangle and support bonus. So that's relative to the other factors as such.

Gunter will deal 17 dmg as a standard, but other stuff needs to be factored to know the real dmg it can deal to a specific enemy.

[Draco]

not sure how many games this applies to but weapon ranks can give you a damage boost too

like in fates, s rank weapons give plus 3 damage (been awhile since I played any other fe)

other stuff like supports and terrain might affect too btw but the formula is generally easy to understand

Edited November 7, 2016 by Draco

[Parrhesia]

You can see the terrain bonuses to defence on the map. IIRC Hills and Forests are 1/15% evade, Forts are 2/20% and Thrones in FE6 are like, 3/40% or something.

[Topaz Light]

Alrighty, sooo...

Strength of Magic (depending on whether it's a normal physical weapon or a magic tome or weapon being used) gets augmented by the weapon's Might. This determines the unit's total Attack Power.

For example, take a Myrmidon wielding an Iron Sword. The Myrmidon's Strength is 6, and the Iron Sword's Might is 5. This means that the Myrmidon's total attack power is 11. (6 + 5 = 11)

Next, the target's Defense (for physical weapons) or Resistance (for magical tomes and weapons) stat is subtracted from the attacker's Attack Power to determine the total amount of damage the attacker will do when they attack.

Let's have our hypothetical Myrmidon attack a Mercenary. Say the Mercenary has 3 Defense. Subtract that 3 Defense from the Myrmidon's base Attack Power of 11 and we get 8. (11 - 3 = 8)

This means that each hit the Myrmidon lands on the Mercenary will deal exactly 8 damage, unless it's a critical hit, in which case it would deal 24. (8 x 3 = 24)

Now, in some games, the Weapon Triangle also effects Attack Power. Having the Weapon Triangle advantage boosts Attack Power by 1, while the Weapon Triangle disadvantage decreases it by 1. This means that our Myrmidon's base Attack Power would be increased by 1 if we pitted them against a Fighter, raising it to 12 before subtracting the Fighter's Defense. On the flipside, sending our Myrmidon into battle against a Soldier would decrease their base Attack Power by 1, lowering it to 10 before subtracting the Soldier's Defense.

Some Terrain tiles also give boosts to the Defense of a unit situated on them; for example, Forest tiles give +1 Defense. You can see this in the little Terrain properties window in the corner of the screen, which lists the Terrain's Defense ("DEF" or a shield icon) and Avoid ("AVO" or a running stick figure) bonuses. In the 3DS Fire Emblem games, HP regeneration is listed as well, marked by a + in Awakening and a heart symbol (❤) in Fates. The number shown for this is the percentage of max HP that will be recovered; for example, Forts are labeled with "20" as their HP regeneration value, which means a unit on a Fort will recover 20% of max HP every time they stand on a Fort at the beginning of their faction's Phase.

The reason I bring up Terrain is because Thrones and Gates give pretty big Defense boosts (+3, if I'm not mistaken), on top of the -1 Attack Power Deke suffers from using a Sword against a Lance-wielding opponent. Since Knights already have high Defense stats, Deke isn't going to be doing a lot of damage to them even with high-powered Swords like Blades or Armorslayers. If you wanna take out a Knight or General on a Throne or Gate tile, it's generally better to send in a spellcaster or a trustworthy Axe-user to do the job. Swordfighting units are already really not suited for taking on Knights and Generals, well, in general; pitting them against one with absurd Terrain bonuses is kind of asking for mishaps.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Topaz Light

[sirmola]

high weapon ranks don't give additional damage in any of the GBA fire emblem games. The first game that does that is FE11 (shadow dragon) (although blazing sword gives slight hit and crit bonuses for s ranks).

Edited November 7, 2016 by sirmola

[Paper Jam]

The most basic answer to your question is this:

Strength is a character stat that affects how much damage that character does.

Might is a weapon stat that affects how much damage its user does.

Attack Power is Strength plus Might.

Damage is Attack Power minus the enemy's Defense.

So let's take a Mercenary who happens to have Strength 6, wielding an Iron Sword (Might 5) and attacking an enemy with Defense 3.

For the purposes of this scenario, let's assume 100% hit chance and 0% crit chance. The total damage that the Mercenary would inflict would be 6+5-3. I must assume that you know enough math to solve this equation.

Ok so say the strength of a sword master is 13 and the might of the weapon is 8. So does that mean he can kill a unit with a hp of 24?

Not in one attack, no; 13+8<24. Even if the enemy unit had 0 Defense, the sword master would still need at least two attacks to kill him.

And to kill him in 2 attacks, the sword master would need to do at least 12 damage (24/2) on each attack. 13+8-X=12, and the enemy's Defense cannot be greater than X.

Edited November 11, 2016 by Paper Jam